Ruling and Opposition party members jostled and shoved each other in the Lok Sabha amid furious exchanges in Parliament over the Delhi riots as the budget session resumed after recess on Monday.
Three women MPs, two from the BJP and one of Congress, lodged complaints of assault against each other with the Lok Sabha Speaker. Both Houses faced repeated adjournments and no bills could be passed in the commotion as a result.
In the Lok Sabha, the government introduced amendments to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act and a bill to amend the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act. The House started a debate on the Direct Tax Vivaad se Vishwas bill but could not finish due to disruptions. In the Rajya Sabha, the government could only manage to start a discussion on the Central Sanskrit Universities bill.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to move a resolution to take action against Congress MPs and seek their suspension from the House under Rule 374 (A), said people aware of the matter.
In the Lok Sabha, 23 Opposition MPs demanded adjournment of all other agenda of the day to discuss the Delhi situation as soon as the House proceedings started. The situation was no different in the Upper House. Both Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla held a series of talks with leaders from both sides but the logjam could not be resolved.
Two BJP MPs, Sobha Karandjale and Jaskaur Meena, submitted complaints to Speaker Om Birla against the behaviour of Congress MPs. Meanwhile, Congress MP Ramya Haridas, representing Alathur, Kerala, charged Meena for physically assaulting her. “… repeatedly happened to me just because I am a Dalit and woman?” she wrote to Birla. While Meena denied any physical altercation with the Congress MPs and said she merely tried to stop them from coming towards her with banners; Karandjale complained that she was “rebuked and physically engaged with” by opposition members. Karandlaje also alleged that Haridas pushed another BJP MP who belongs to the Scheduled Caste.
Birla held meetings with parliamentary affairs minister Prahlad Joshi and Congress floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, among others. Later, disappointed over the days’ developments, he adjourned the House, saying: “I don’t want to run the House in such a situation. You all discuss among yourselves to arrive at a consensus and to uphold the tradition and rules of the House. The House should run only in a proper manner and to strengthen our democracy.”
The Speaker’s assertion is significant as some of his predecessors have previously sought to keep the House running through protests.
The BJP wants action against Congress MPs Gaurav Gogoi, Ravneet Singh Bittu and Hibi Eden under the rule that allows the Speaker to suspend for “grave disorder occasioned by a member coming into the well of the House or abusing the Rules of the House, persistently and wilfully obstructing its business by shouting slogans or otherwise…” The Speaker has the power to automatically suspend any disruptive member from the House for at least five days.
After the Lower House was adjourned for the first time, Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi staged a protest near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament complex, demanding the resignation of home minister Amit Shah. Trinamool Congress MPs, too, protested near the statue before the House convened, theatrically wearing blindfolds and with fingers over their lips. The Congress MPs held placards reading “Save Our India”, “Prime Minister Must Answer” and “Shah Must Resign” (a reference to home minister Amit Shah).
“When Delhi was burning, our home minister was playing the host in Ahmedabad. Playing a host is fine, but when Indians were being killed, that should have been the priority,” Congress floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said referring to the ‘Namaste Trump’ programme. “There should be an investigation into the violence. The Prime Minister speaks after three days, the home minister does not say anything, (National Security Adviser) Ajit Doval is sent to look into it, this is their failure,” he told reporters.
Later, addressing the media, Union minister Smriti Irani said the she will take up the issue of Congress MPs misbehaving with BJP women members. “Congress MPs misbehaved with BJP women MPs in Lok Sabha. I would appeal to the Speaker (Om Birla) to take the strongest possible action against them. For the past two to three sessions ‘goonda’ elements of the Congress are disrupting Parliament proceedings,” she said, adding that the action of Congress members in Parliament shows the desperation of the Gandhi family.
In the Rajya Sabha, leader of the opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad charged that the Central government “slept” when violence rocked Delhi for three days.
